Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves.
Paul TillichRead
Faith consists in being vitally concerned with that ultimate reality to which I give the symbolical name of God. Whoever reflects earnestly on the meaning of life is on the verge of an act of faith.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Faith is deeply linked to our understanding of the ultimate reality, often symbolized as God, and contemplating life's meaning leads to acts of faith.
In this quote, Paul Tillich emphasizes the importance of faith as a vital concern for a higher reality, which he identifies symbolically as God. He suggests that those who seriously contemplate the meaning of life are naturally led to a state of faith, indicating that the search for meaning and the acknowledgment of a greater existence are intertwined.
Themes
FaithLifeMeaningGodReality
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of belief systems, one might quote this to illustrate the link between faith and the search for meaning.
More from Paul Tillich
All quotes βHe who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.
Paul TillichRead
The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.
Paul TillichRead
The citizens of a city are not guilty of the crimes committed in their city; but they are guilty as participants in the destiny of [humanity] as a whole and in the destiny of their city in particular; for their acts in which freedom was united with destiny have contributed to the destiny in which they participate. They are guilty, not of committing the crimes of which their group is accused, but of contributing to the destiny in which these crimes happened.
Paul TillichRead
Wine is like the incarnation--it is both divine and human
Paul TillichRead
Man is able to decide for or against reason, he is able to create beyond reason or to destroy below reason
Paul TillichRead
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If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
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The emperor is in the Church, not above the Church.
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I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.
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Devils are depicted with bats' wings and good angels with birds' wings, not because anyone holds that moral deterioration would be likely to turn feathers into membrane, but because most men like birds better than bats.
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People have to be atomized and segregated and alone. They're not supposed to organize, because then they might be something beyond spectators of action. They might actually be participants if many people with limited resources could get together to enter the political arena. That's really threatening.
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